The calm before the storm and the creation of “The Unbeatables”
Liverpool 2 Queens Park Rangers 1, 18th March 1987
From the sub-title of this article alone you will already be aware of the score in this particular game but first we need to propel ourselves forward, 7 months in fact, to 17th October 1987 when Queens Park Rangers (QPR) visited Anfield as the leaders of the then simply titled “First Division”. It was a footballing cliché to rule them all, a “Top of The Table Clash” but whereas with the game under discussion and the Reds narrow 2–1 win on a cold March night, 7 months later Kenny Dalglish’s team of record breakers and the utter joy that was the Barnes/Beardsley/Aldridge/Houghton team of late 1987 onward destroyed QPR 4–0 on a crisp and sunny October afternoon and very much the calm after the storm.
As will long live in infamy, the BBC “Weatherman” of the day Michael Fish laughed off suggestions that the UK was going to be hit by the hurricane that did indeed rip through the southern counties of the UK on 16th October 1987, leaving destruction and infrastructure problems in it’s gale force wake. As memory serves the hurricane mainly affected the southern most counties only so there was no disruption as far north as Liverpool and as bad luck would have it, that very city was my destination for the second time in a fortnight and what should have been my second visit to the hallowed grounds of Anfield in my entire 15 years of earthly life.
Liverpool 2 QPR 1 - original article
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Then a hurricane landed, a hurricane that was actually laughed and scoffed at on live national television, my boyhood plans were scuppered, and I missed the incredible 4–0 demolition of QPR that would springboard this amazing, progressive, attacking and thrilling team to equalling the record of Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest and going 29 matches unbeaten in the league and wrapping up the Championship at a canter. The less said about the FA Cup Final with Wimbledon that season the better, so we’ll just skip over that crazy gang piece of injustice, whistle a happy tune and fondly remember John Barnes’ utter brilliance on the wing, Peter Beardsley making me fall instantly in love with him and John Aldridge’s incredible goal return instead!
I awoke on that fateful morning of the 17th October 1987 and the night very much after the storm, to see walls collapsed and the debris of fallen trees littering the road with utterly disbelieving eyes. I arrived at the train station at 5am for the near six hour journey to be met by engineers and workmen telling tales of major delays, coach shuttles, bus transfers and all manner of unrealistic travails ahead for a 15 year old travelling alone, so I returned home to a similarly disbelieving Mother and duly returned the begged and borrowed cash I had no doubt begged and indeed borrowed. Regardless of my attendance, the Reds ripped through “Rangers” on this bright sunny October day with Craig Johnston opening the scoring before a clinical penalty from John Aldridge put the Reds 2–0 up. Then the game became the “John Barnes Show” as first Liverpool hunted down a loose ball in a hungry pack as usual and Whelan’s deft touch found Barnes and following a wonderful one/two with John Aldridge, he found the same corner of the Kop End goal as Aldridge did with his penalty earlier. It looks a simple goal, but it’s a sublime finish, yet what was to follow has since rightly gone down into Liverpool Football Club folklore. Within seconds of the restart Barnes hunted the ball down on the halfway line and just ran right at the heart of the QPR defence, touching the ball with either foot 8/9 times before two deft touches with his left foot flummoxed two Rangers defenders before he calmly slotted the ball with his right foot into the bottom corner of David Seaman’s goal. It’s a stunning goal I’ve been in love with for over 30 years and it’s just a howling shame I didn’t get to see it in the flesh all those years ago!
7 months earlier it was a very different Liverpool team and in a particularly indifferent season too as the only highlights were a shared Charity Shield with neighbours Everton and a win in the inaugural, but short lived, Screen Sport Super Cup. In a somewhat failed season they were also defeated 2–1 by Arsenal in the League Cup Final at Wembley and had to stand on the side lines and applaud their Blue Everton neighbours as they wrapped up the Championship. But all that was for the future. First the Reds entertained the pleasingly old fashioned blue and white hooped shirts of Queens Park Rangers, and a certain Ian Rush was about to make yet more Liverpool history:
Ex Red Sammy Lee returned to Anfield for the first time since leaving his boyhood team and in the those pleasing blue and white hooped shirts alongside QPR stalwarts Terry Fenwick in defence, Mike Fillery in midfield and the flying winger of his day, Wayne Fereday. Liverpool fielded as strong a side as injuries and team rebuilding would allow, with new signing John Aldridge on the substitutes bench watching a Reds team in transition with Barry Venison, Nigel Spackman, Paul Walsh and John Wark all getting a rare chance in the starting XI and it’s Spackman who immediately impresses with ferocious tackles in the midfield (one a brilliantly timed one, the other less so!) and with QPR making the early running a flashing cross shot is guided behind by veteran Ronnie Whelan who only narrowly avoids an embarrassing own goal. Liverpool do not settle into the game at all and it’s “Rangers” who are on top, thoroughly dominating the early going and Wayne Fereday unleashes a ferocious shot that forces Bruce Grobbelaar into a spectacular flying save before the visitors take a deserved early lead.
GOAL! Liverpool 0 QPR 1 (Fereday 18 minutes)
Future England goalkeeper David Seaman hoists a huge kick upfield which is won by Rangers striker Gary Bannister before a quick incisive cross is headed powerfully past Grobbelaar into the Liverpool goal by Mike Fillery. The nature of the pinpoint cross and powerful header into the corner is not lost on even the partisan Reds in the crowd who warmly applaud the goal and QPR have a thoroughly deserved lead.
A lead they would only hold for 60 seconds.
GOAL! Liverpool 1 QPR 1 (Rush 19 minutes)
The Reds first meaningful attack of the game sees a sweeping move stretching the entire field, from Lawrenson in defence to Craig Johnston in midfield who’s layoff to Barry Venison sees the right back marauding forward. His run forward passes the halfway line before his sweeping cross is met on the volley by Ian Rush who’s somewhat scuffed shot deceives a flat footed Seaman in the QPR goal and “Tosh” has his 200th league goal for the Reds. The sweeping move is a thing of beauty, the finish less so. Seaman really should have saved it quite easily, but it’s 1–1 and Liverpool are finally into the game.
With “The Kop” now in full voice with their staple shouts of “Attack, Attack, Attack Attack Attack!” and “We’re Gonna Win the League”, the Reds pore forward now they’ve settled into the game and Jan Molby, Rush and Paul Walsh all buzz around threatening the Rangers goal before a brilliant one/two between Paul Walsh and Ronnie Whelan sees the Irishman Whelan clipping the post with a wonderful drive that left Seaman with no chance. This typifies the dominance the Reds now have in the game after their incredibly slow and ponderous start and Rush forces a fine save from Seaman before the teams leave the field at half-time with the score locked at 1–1.
With the second half in it’s early stages a through ball sees Ian Rush with a clear run on goal before being cynically hauled down by Rangers defender Alan McDonald. Despite it being a clear goal scoring opportunity he’s only shown a yellow card and not a red card in today’s footballing language and there wouldn’t be any need for the pesky interference of the Video Assistant Referee! VAR would not be required today! McDonald would be sent off in an instant but the foul in 1987 leads to a promising close in free kick for the Reds and Molby curls a delicious shot around the wall that Seaman fingertips narrowly past the post. It should’ve been a corner to Liverpool but the referee doesn’t spot the terrific save from the future England goalkeeper and refuses to hear the protests from a distressed and angry Jan Molby. The teams trade half chances (Fillery for QPR and John Wark for Liverpool) before the introduction of substitute John Aldridge leads to Liverpool’s winning goal.
GOAL! Liverpool 2 QPR 1 (Rush 73 minutes)
A very untypically Liverpool goal! Grobbelaar launches a huge kick upfield which substitute Aldridge heads into the path of an already running Rush. His cross shot across Seaman is good and accurately into the corner but the goalkeeper gets a hand to the ball and again, should have done much better.
With time ticking down to the final whistle Jan Molby brilliantly skips past a defender before unleashing a wonderful drive that shaves the outside of the post but this is immaterial now as the game ends in favour of the Reds and a vital win in their, albeit in vain, chase of their city rivals for the destination of the League Championship trophy.
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering and the right way up in an upside down world.